straight line motion
by Static Lull
Summary: KarasuHaruka —- somewhere in the space between time and dimensions and his fingers as they rest on her cheek, she begins to love him. 30 Kisses.
1. if only I could make you mine

**a / n ;; **inspired by stories from .oh my glitter and garters. and CherryFlavoredChalk, two of the best writers on this site (or at least for their fandoms). You wouldn't believe how long something so short took to finish. It's ridiculous. Written for the 30 kisses challenge on LiveJournal. uncapslocks intentional.

and for the sake of clarity, all of these drabbles are unrelated unless stated otherwise.

**[**twenty six: if only I could make you mine**]**

* * *

somewhere in the spaces between time and dimensions and his fingers as they rest on her cheek, she begins to love him.

rewind and reset; a flicker and flash of neon blue and black and snow. whispers of wingbeats and the crackle-pop of electricity. this is where it all begins--

--and ends. an ouroboros twisting its way around her throat; her life. and he might've counted his too if his hadn't ended with the other her, his her.

she's a ghost of what he remembers and more than he deserves. or, maybe, exactly what he deserves, because he couldn't save _her_ from the electrode and binary code noose around her throat _(porcelain white with a butterfly pulse he's felt beneath his lips many a time but quoth the ravencrow_**karasu**_ nevermore)._ never, nevermore. but here she is-- or isn't.

and this kind of thinking's dangerous, because she's flickering from twelve to twenty-two and back again in a one-two motion that's got his head spinning in circles, and this is La'cryma but it isn't, but _ohitis, itis._ not. it's an illusion and he musn't forget it. condensed and concentrated reizu particles _(staring back at him with electric bubblegum eyes filled with something more than nothing, but he's not so blind as to realize that they shouldn't be)._

"Haruka."


	2. good night

straight line motion  
karasu;haruka

**[**_24. good night_**]**

**

* * *

**

Nights_ in this world are the hardest._

In the silence between going to sleep and going insane, he watches shadows creep along the walls like spiders in his veins; feels his heart rip to shreds in tandem with the rise and fall of the _(ghost)_ girl's chest as she dreams of technicolor wonders that are as likely to reach him as he is to reach the stars-- something unheard of in a world locked so far beneath stone and earth and the rusted ruins of wrecked cities.

But there was a once upon a time in which he recalls summer nights spent pinning stars between his thumb and forefinger, letting wishes dance across his lips, and arc through the sky. Wishes are for weaker men, and he knows this now because they couldn't save her-- the other her.

And, maybe, _this_ is his salvation.

_(there's always another chance to get it right)._

And when she cries out in her sleep _(nightmares don't suit you, darling)_ he places his lips against her forehead.

"_good night"_

And for the first time in a long time, he almost believes it.

* * *

**a / n ;; **I'm feeling kind of hit-and-miss about this one. I'm really fond of the first paragraph, and parts of the second, but I feel like after that it went downhill. owell. ._.


	3. the sound of waves

straight line motion  
karasu;haruka

**[ **twenty-nine: the sound of waves **]**

**a / n ;; **I'm actually kindasorta fond of this drabble. And, I didn't use a single set of parentheses _thankyouverymuch_.

To prevent any confusion, this is La'cryma-verse Haruka, and this chapter may or may not contain some speculative ideas, depending on how you interpret this.

* * *

_their story is the sort left on the cutting room floor._

Once upon a time there's a boy and a girl and a world that's theirs for the taking.

And even if it's shriveled up and dying under the glare of the magic circle project, it's got to count for something, _right?_

--

The first time they notice the ouroboros arc across the horizon they point and stare and stutter, and from that moment onward she knows her breaths are numbered.

The next time she sees it, it's a stolen, over-the-shoulder glimpse as she's being ushered underground; shut and locked away in a prison there's no key to.

But he's standing here beside her with their fingers intertwined so that she's not sure where he ends and she begins, an ouroboros of their very own, and in this moment it's almost easy to forget the screams and sobs of others or Miho's burned and broken eyes or her mother's corpse lying in a tangled heap somewhere on the surface.

"It'll be okay," he says.

She wants to believe him.

--

The days seem to stretch into eternity with no sun or stars overhead to govern the passing of time. Their bodies have grown so pale and skeletal that she's almost convinced that they're the ghosts and this is their hell and miles above their people are carrying on with their day-to-day lives, mourning them instead of the other way around; like the riddles from her nightmares. But then she remembers the explosions she thinks she hears sometimes which sound like the muffled crashing of waves or of a dimension falling apart.

She's half-convinced it's only a dream when the men come and take away Isami and Yuu.

The whispers of quantum surgery and alien weapon-machines are the very ones she tries to keep from her mind.

--

"I love you, and I've only just realized, and I thought I'd tell you, Yuu."

"It's Karasu."

--

This dimension is falling apart, and she knows it now; everyone does.

It's only a matter of time, they've been told, until the merging of La'cryma into Shangri-La, particle by particle until there's nothing left.

It scares her more than she could have imagined, and maybe that's why she agreed to be the observer--because she's terrified of there being a world without Ai; Isami; Miho; Lily; _**him**_.

--

"**Haruka**,"

"I don't mind."

He doesn't say the words that he means the most.

--

Once upon a time there's sleeping beauty and her knight in bloody armor, but this is no fairytale and some spells can't be broken with a kiss.


	4. our distance and that person

straight line motion  
karasu;haruka

**[** four : our distance and that person **]**

**a / n ;;** It's crazy short but I like it all the same. Prop points to anyone spotting the kiss theme.

-

She's stardust dancing between the layers of saltwater, sand, and silt. She's the sunlight refracting off raindrops, blinking butterflies into existence in a flutter of lashes on cheekbones and bathing them in the light she wears like the heart on her sleeves. She laughs and jumps and buries her head into his shoulder at night.

She is an entity unto herself; his light and love and reason to be--

--and forever out of his reach.


	5. kilohertz

straight line motion  
karasu;haruka

**[** seventeen : kilohertz **]  
a / n ;; **La'cryma-verse, crazy short, comma abuse, and more YuuHaruka than KarasuHaruka (but it's almost the same ._.)

_take a breath let it out slow._

The end of the world comes with the flip of a switch and baited breath _(and the crackle-pop of electricity, a rip and a tear, and the sputtering sound of a dimension in quantum meltdown)._

The sirens are blaring as they sprint down the crumbling streets, bodies surge and fall around them, bones crunch underfoot and babies scream. Her ears bleed red like the sky and she stumbles and he grabs her by the wrist.

"Yuu-"

Her face is caught roughly in his hands _(there will be bruises there tomorrow, and that's the most beautiful thought that's crossed her mind since she can't remember when)_ and his lips feel like concrete and broken glass, but things like that don't matter on the edge of apocalypse, only running and rushing and _living_, and that's what they're doing the very next moment.

There are no vows, no wind-bourne whispers of love, only fear and raw moments, and it's almost enough, but not really.


End file.
